Tilly Lockey, who lost her hands to meningitis as a baby, tests Open Bionics' bionic arms inspired by the Alita: Battle Angel film. She demonstrates how they work and shares her advocacy for other amputees.
Chapters
Like many 13-year-old girls, Tilly Lockey loves doing her makeup, but unlike most teenagers, she has had to overcome the toughest of challenges. She lost both her hands when she contracted meningitis at just 15 months old.
At Christmas, Tilly was given her first set of what are called comic book-inspired hero arms. Just hold them up for us, Tilly, let's see there. You realize what we're talking about? You can see those in somebody like Iron Man or whatever, some sort of super RoboCop or whatever. That has changed her life. Tilly is here with her hands, her arms, and her mum Sarah. Very good to see you both there. Let's talk about those, those appliances, those arms there first of all. So you went to the premiere of Alita: Battle Angel, a cyberpunk action film. So one of the things amazing about this is the, the characters in this have appliances like that.
Yeah, so we saw it advertised everywhere, like it was on the side of 3 of my school buses at school, and I just really loved the sound of it. It kind of reminded me of myself, like with the bionic hands and stuff. And so we already arranged to go see it for my dad's birthday since That was the first day it was in cinemas. And then I thought— I didn't actually know I was gonna go to the premiere at all. I went down to London and then thinking I would just be doing a photo shoot as I usually would. And then so I walked into this room and then there were about 7 cameras and John Lando was stood over my hands and I was just like, what?
So the company that make these, they were working with the film company and they said, you know, you can nominate somebody to receive a pair of these. Of bionic hands, and they nominated you. So how did they know about you?
Uh, well, I've been working with Open Bionics for 2, 3 years now, and you know, some people are, um, jet pilots and they test airplanes, or they test cars, whatever it is. You are an arm and bionic hand tester then?
Yeah.
Yeah, brilliant.
I'm just— I would give them really critical feedback and like, this is really bad, this is quite good, this is what you can do to fix it, and then they'll just try and make it the best possible that it can be for amputees. And 20th Century Fox got in touch with Unbionics and they said, we'd really love to bring these hands in reality. Is there anyone you would suggest? And they straight away thought Tilly Lockey.
It was you. We're going to talk about how you use those hands in real life. I've already shaken hands with you and all feels great. The grip's good. But Mum, let's go back to when Tilly was a baby and how she got into this situation. And as any parent, it's the terrible meningitis you fear. Fear it at any age and stage in their lives. For you, unfortunately, that came true when she was 15 months old.
Yeah, it's like one of those things that you never think's ever gonna happen to you. You read about it, and it's something that we've always tried to raise so much awareness about ever since she was young, and I've dedicated my life to doing that. Yeah, so when she was 15 months old, she wasn't very well, and The symptoms were just sort of like flu-like symptoms at first. She had a high temperature, she was off her food, and then it wasn't until she started breathing rapidly and being a little bit more or less like wanting to get down and play with her toys, and then—
Then you saw the rash.
I saw the rash. She was actually firstly diagnosed with an ear infection, and it wasn't until later on in the day that I saw this rash. And I mean, the rash doesn't always have to come with meningitis. It was the septicemia that caused the rash. But for me, that was—
I mean, it all happened incredibly quickly. It was very traumatic for you and your husband. And you said by the time your husband got to the hospital to meet you there, you'd been told that you should maybe expect the worst.
Yeah, it was pretty much 100% she wasn't going to come through this.
She did come through it, but unfortunately, they did have to amputate.
They did. The day that they told us that she was getting better, which was all we ever wanted to hear, they took the blanket off her and they said, but it's devastated her body. And they said she will lose her hands and she will lose her toe tips and there could be other further problems.
Well, Tilly, the incredible credit to you, you've carried on with your life gusto. You become that test pilot for all these different appliances. You get these bionic arms, you go and see that movie, you see these in action, and you've been using them very well because since Christmas, Tilly has been posting tutorials online.
I like, I really push. And there's a story that I could— I was stuck in a room and I couldn't open the door, and my mom was there. And then she said— I was like, 'Mom, open the door for us, I want out.' And then she said, 'No, Tilly, you're gonna do it yourself.' And did a tough love.
Yeah, you had to be in the beginning because you wanted her to like solve all these problems herself without needing so much help.
How, how, um, How difficult was it before you had these particular hands? You've had prosthetics before, and how much difference has it made for you being able to do your makeup using these?
Well, like, I did lose my hands at 15 months old, so I'm now 13, and I've had, like, 12 years to adapt and make my own way in life. And so I've adapted really well, and I can write and do a lot of things, like, without my hands. And I could do my makeup as well without my hands, but like, it's just more fun experimenting with these hands. Like, the main reason I started working with Open Bionics was to help try and make prosthetics available for other kids who need it more, because I used to have like visions and stuff when I was little. Like, I used to ask you, well, what happened if you had hands and then all of a sudden they were just gone? You spent all your life with hands and then they were gone. How do those people cope? So that was our main goal, just to make everything a bit better.
And you feel that because you lost your limbs, your toes, your hands when you were so young, then you come at it from a different perspective because you don't know what it was like to have had them and lost them.
Yeah, I don't remember ever having hands except for one time where I picked a tomato and ate it, but didn't like it. But that's not really interesting right now.
So it's literally— it's the muscles. We were talking about this when I met you earlier this morning. It's the muscle in your arm. So your brain sends the message to your muscle you squeeze the muscle and that makes the hand move.
Yeah, so the sensors on the inside is really easy, like you just slip the arm on and then press a button and then it works straight away. And so if I squeeze my muscles—
If you wanted to grip my hand. That is amazing.
And it is, it's like science fiction, but except it's science fact, it's medical fact, and it's incredible progression. And what we'd like you to do for us is make a little film, a little tutorial on what you do makeup, which we would like to make specially for our This Morning app so that people will find out more about you and what you do. So it'll be like your space there, it'll be Tilly Lockey's little slot on our This Morning app.
Would you, could you do that for us?
Yes, I'd love to.
Oh, listen, it's amazing to meet you, Tilly, and like you said, you're doing this for other people as well as for yourself. Testing these. You must be so proud of her.
